Tharanga Paranavitana sparkles with his maiden ton

Without Harbhajan Singh in his element, India's attack lacked bite, inspiration and skill. The maiden hundred, though, is never easy irrespective of the opposition and Paranavitana played really well to get to his. And his celebration was befitting of the landmark: He screamed in delight as he pumped his fists, jumped in joy, and ran almost all the way to the boundary.

Paranavitana had started with two edged boundaries in Ishant's first over but quickly tightened his game. He rarely chased the ball, he rarely tried to play an expansive shot and he rarely looked in trouble. There was a delightful punchy drive through extra cover against Ishant and an off-driven boundary in the same over during the first session. There was a moment of apprehension when he got a leading edge against Harbhajan in the last over before lunch but Gautam Gambhir couldn't react quickly enough at silly point to take it. Paranavitana continued to make merry after lunch: He flicked and off drove Mithun, slog swept and straight drove Ojha, and kept rotating the strike with little dabs and nudges.

Pragyan Ojha pinged the middle-and-leg line with a backward short-leg and short-leg in place. Often, he slipped the ball outside leg. While Paranavitana swept and worked him behind square-leg, Sangakkara at times backed away to cut from middle stump. Never did it seem that he was taking any undue risk, though. What stood out was the ease with which the pair progressed. It appeared as though they were having a net session.

By scoring a hundred against the Indians in the warm-up game, Upul Tharanga had put some pressure on Paranavitana. However, the left-handed opener has done much to seal his spot with an assured performance today.